Please Include My College Major On My SUNY Oneonta Degree/Diploma

We are signing this petition to advocate for editorial changes to the SUNY Oneonta degree (or diploma), so that our chosen undergraduate major(s) are explicitly mentioned on the degrees we received at graduation.

We are seeking support for this petition from SUNY Oneonta students and alumni.

As a SUNY Oneonta Alumni, I can say that we look upon our SUNY Oneonta degree with a sense of achievement and pride. The guided process of learning and applying our knowledge in the real world is truly the most valuable gift that any academic institution can offer us, and for that, we are forever grateful. Our college degree from SUNY Oneonta, which is so often hung on the walls of our home or office for years beyond our college graduation, is an important visual reminder of our accomplishments. Our college degree symbolizes our academic success, personal dedication, and transition into adulthood and our chosen professional vocation.

However, our undergraduate college degrees, at least those awarded in 2006 and beyond, do not explicitly mention our college majors, but simply read "Bachelor of Arts" or "Bachelor of Science." For many of us who graduated from SUNY Oneonta, our degrees appear exactly the same with the exception of names and dates. There is no way of showing our family and friends who we were and what we studied as undergraduate level students. As alumni from various backgrounds, we majored in everything from Accounting to Theatre. We want our degree to reflect our individuality in that regard. What we chose to study is often intimately tied to our identity and interests. Our experiences at SUNY Oneonta played a significant role in defining us as students and scholars. We only ask that our majors be printed on our degrees so that it reflects what we chose to study, and in some cases, what we devoted our lives to. We hope that such editorial changes to the SUNY Oneonta degree can be made to any degree awarded to past and perhaps, future SUNY Oneonta graduates. For SUNY Oneonta Alumni, this would require the college to reprint any degree previously awarded, but only upon request.

We understand that this petition only addresses a minor issue compared to the much greater concerns in academia today. But as SUNY Oneonta Alumni and students, and members of the greater academic community, we hope that our request for the college to redesign the SUNY Oneonta undergraduate degree, in such a way that it explicitly mentions our college majors, will be thoughtfully considered.

We hope that this petition will be well-received by the SUNY Oneonta Office of the President and other relevant parties at SUNY Oneonta.